More than 20,000 Colombians have fled or been deported from venceremos-plagued Venezuela in an escalating border crisis, an AFP article quotes the United Nations as stating on Tuesday.
Some 1,500 Colombians have been sent across the border by the Venezuelan government since it began mass deportations late last month, in a less than …humanitarian move by Caracas’ socialists.
More than 18,500 others have fled Venezuela, opting to leave with their families and belongings rather than risk being summarily deported, the report said.
“They have been forced to return on their own because of the current conditions and the fear of being deported,” it said.
The figure is considerably higher than the last estimate from the Colombian government, which had put the total number of displaced at 14,000.
More than five million Colombians are estimated to live in Venezuela.